ZX Spectrum Vega game #0030
Dear Readers,
Today I'll talk about this arcade single screen shooter by Nigel Stuart and Macronics Systems Ltd from 1983.
WOW what a title screen! It's insane. It rapidly flashes colours while playing zappy, screamy, noisy arcade sound effects.
You play as a guy with a jetpack and a gun in outer space, shooting all these weird insect alien things. You move faster than they do and you move all over the screen, but you can only shoot left or right and can only defeat the enemies with head shots. They eventually get faster too.
The sound effects in this game are incredible. When you shoot it's this rubbery snappy squawky sound. When you hit an enemy the whole universe freezes as the enemy explodes into a little flashing light ball accompanied by a rapid splashy sound. It's so satisfying and a great use of hitstop/sticky friction! Imagine using a catapult to shoot a flock a pigeons that just took a dump on you. That's how satisfying it is.
When you finish a level you get a whooshing and crashing computery sound effect and it sounds so awesome!
I got my first game over with a score of 730. The high score table is blank and has a flickery film strip effect going on.
Got a nice bit of a backstory here too. Actually it's no backstory. Just describing how you're a guy who got a job shooting aliens in space using only a jetpack and a laser and a spacesuit. Lots of lovely colours flashing here but you can switch them off.
On my second try I got a score of 1,974. I came across this other enemy. This crazy homing flashing thing at the top that instantly kills you if you're to the right of it when it starts moving. During this time the universe freezes and it's too late if you haven't moved out of the way already. When it passes by you get an amazing sense of relief and satisfaction that you've outsmarted it too!
A couple of tries later I scored 1,954. That flashing thing sometimes hangs around near the left side of the screen, so that makes life very tricky with such limited safe space. I wish I could face it from the get go though. You know with Game & Watch games, where there's a Game B that starts a little more difficult straight away? I kinda wish that option was here, but no worries.
So my highest score is still 1,974. This is such an awesome and playable arcade game!
One strategy you could use is fire constantly, which makes the action slow down a little bit.
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